


An Interesting Journal Entry

by Hxdgewitch, Tadfish



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-11-02 08:43:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20687969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hxdgewitch/pseuds/Hxdgewitch, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tadfish/pseuds/Tadfish
Summary: He has to tell his friends sometime. And Eli seems like a good place to start.





	An Interesting Journal Entry

He stared at the phone, his thumb hovering over the contact icon. He had to do this at some point, they’re his friends. They won’t care what he looks like. Especially, _Eli _of all people. He sighed and ran his free hand along his horn. “Just push the button, Jim. It’s fine. Just push the stupid-It’s ringing. It’s _ringing._” He didn’t actually mean to push the button! Crap, crap, crap! His ears perked as the ringing fell silent and a familiar face appeared on the screen. “Uh…hey.” 

Eli was adding some new theories to his conspiracy board. After lunch with Steve earlier he was convinced something weird was going on with their waiter. But he’d have to investigate that later as the phone ringing grabbed his attention. He was expecting Steve or Toby, or maybe Krel, but certainly not Jim.

His heart skipped a beat, unsure of whether to be ecstatic or worried. It’d been a long time since they’d talked and even though Eli had made several new friends,he still  _ really _ missed Jim. Then again, they _ really  _ hadn’t talked in a while. With Jim being in New Jersey, doing trollhunting stuff, what if this was some sort of emergency?

Having already wasted too many seconds worrying, Eli hit the ‘Answer Call’ button, but he got another surprise when he saw  what  who was on the other end, “AAH!” he exclaimed, nearly dropping his phone, “Creeper!” He hadn’t been informed of Jim’s transformation yet, which left him entirely unable to recognize his friend, “Where’s Jim, why do you have his phone?!” He was already thinking up ways to get to Jersey fast, clearly, Jim was in trouble! Maybe Krel’s wormhole tech?

Jim yelped and slammed the phone face down on the ground, nearly shattering the screen. He held his hand up to his mouth and tried to control his shaky breaths. His brain filled with static, drowning out his old friend’s concerned interrogation. He expected this. He expected it. So why was he still panicking? He let out a final deep breath and held the phone back up to his face, but covered the camera with his thumb. “I’m right here, Eli. I’m okay.” 

“Jim?” Obviously something had happened. There’d been noises and movement. Eli was frustrated with how small the phone camera was. How little it showed, especially since the screen was still dark, “Did you get your phone back from that creeper? What happened?!” It sounded like Jim was okay, at least, “I think it might’ve broken your camera, I can’t see anything anymore.” Maybe the reason Jim had called was because there were a lot of creepers around and he was getting overwhelmed! “Do you need help? I know a way to get there fast if you need creepslaying backup!”

“No, no, no I don’t need backup!” Jim looked around at nothing in particular, searching for the right words. “There’s not…there’s no creeper. Not any dangerous ones at least.” He brushed his bangs out of his face. “Please,  _ please _ , don’t freak out.” He moved his thumb away from the camera.“I’m the only one here.”

Eli stared for a moment, taking in Jim’s new appearance and the fact that this was really Jim, then… “WOAH! That’s so  _ cool!”  _ he was immediately in awe of Jim, “You’re actually a creeper! That’s amazing! How did it happen? Hold on lemme grab my notebook!” Which took approximately half a second because it was sitting right next to him, but a few more seconds to position the phone and notebook in a way that would let him take notes and talk to Jim at the same time.

“Amazing?” Jim breathed a laugh. Amazing might be a stretch but it has perks. For example, the stone skin that’s currently hiding his blushing cheeks.” Thank you but…” He shook his head and regained his wits.” I’m not sure I’m ready to tell  _ you _ the details of that story. I don’t want this to completely change how you see me.” He’d already given Claire and Toby enough heartache, he didn’t want to have Eli worrying about him too. “Also, we need to talk about your use of the word ‘creeper’.” 

“Of course it’s amazing!” he said, his own human skin not doing quite as much to hide the blush tinting his cheeks, “And you’re still Jim,” he said, “…aren’t you? I mean, that’s what you said.” As far as he was concerned, Jim is still Jim and still his friend. Jim nodded at him solemnly. Why was he still upset? Wait...the half-troll's statement finally registered.“Oh, is the Creeper thing like when Krel and Aja made me stop saying, Alien?” He said, saying the word Alien. Not like anyone was around to hear it at least.

“Um, yeah. I don’t think I’m the only one uncomfortable being called a creep. If you called another human that, it’d clearly be an insult.” While Eli’s words are mostly affectionate, some of his language is more than a little hurtful. “I’d also appreciate it if you could avoid ‘monster’ or anything else like that.” Impure, too, is a word that’s been thrown at him recently. But it’s not like Eli would even know that one. 

“Well, I’m not calling you a creep,” Eli corrected, “Creeps and Creepers are two different things.” He wanted to reassure Jim that he wasn’t calling him creepy or a creep because obviously those things are bad. “And I wouldn’t even _ think  _ about calling you a monster. But I’ll try to stick with calling you a Troll instead,” He promised. He didn’t want to accidentally chase away his friend just because his mouth moved before his brain caught up sometimes. Being trans, he knew what little accidental slip-ups from friends and peers felt like, so he was gonna try really hard to get it right.

While the word still hurt regardless of Eli’s specific intended meaning, he was grateful effort would be made not to use it any more.. “Thanks, man. For a minute there I was a little worried you were gonna zip slipper to New Jersey with your ninja stars.” He teased. “I might just need to have Merlin set you up with real armor one of these days. Especially with all the al-” Wait, crap. Eli  _ just said _ that’s a bad word. “uh…extraterrestrials running around Arcadia, seriously what is up with that? Are Aja and Krel okay? Tobes told me a bounty hunter was after them?” Toby’s texts had been frequent but not nearly as informative as the half-troll would’ve liked. 

“Wait- you can get me real armor? Like Toby has? That’s so cool!” Maybe then he could actually be helpful. 

“I don’t see why we couldn’t but for reals, Eli. Aja and Krel. I’m so in the dark on that whole situation.” 

“Oh yeah, yeah, yeah Aja and Krel are fine. They’ve got a new bounty hunter after them like, every week, but they can handle themselves,” He said, “Plus, they’ve got me and Steve and Toby and Aaarrrgghh and Vex and Zadra all looking out for them too! The bounty hunters don’t stand a chance! Especially if we had some of that armor you mentioned?” 

Jim quickly regretted promising him armor. But he couldn’t blame the boy, he’d been rather overly excited when he’d gotten his armor too. “Yeah I mean, Merlin is ‘forever in my service’ after all.” He laughs. “It’d finally give him something to do other than make inappropriate comments about everyone else’s life choices.” Jim laughs despite only partly joking there.Now he’s gotten himself all excited at the prospect. Not just because it’s always fun to bug Merlin but also because Claire and Toby’s armor did turn out pretty freaking cool. “How down do you think Steve would be to sacrifice _ his _ Vespa to the cause?” 

“Oh, no,” Eli said, “Steve would  _ not _ be okay with that,” Steve loves his Vespa and uses it all the time, “And we need it for official Creepslayerz business!” Though it had other purposes too, like lunch, or the movies, or just hanging out at Aja and Krel’s. “Is that  _ really _ the only way to get sweet armor like Toby’s?”

“Ah, come on Peppers, he likes you, I bet you could talk him into it.” There are definitely other ways to make the armor but Steve was always so obnoxious with that Vespa…He does love that thing a lot though. Jim sighed, who was he kidding? He couldn’t let a Vespa that nice get melted down. The half-troll let out an exaggerated huff. “Or I guess we could get into that junkyard a couple of blocks down if he’s really _ that  _ attached to the dumb thing.” 

_ He likes you. _ Eli tried to hide his faint blush. He breathes a sigh of relief. He didn’t really want to talk Steve into melting down his only ride. Even though he has his license, Mrs. Pepperjack wasn’t letting her son do any driving without her in the near future. She was a little overprotective sometimes, which could be frustrating, since Eli had such an important secret job to do. “Yeah! The junkyard would work!” He’d snuck in there a few times to scavenge for spy gear and to search for stuff to upgrade his meager weaponry (with little success), so he knew his way around at least. “When do you think you’ll be back in Arcadia to make it happen?” He asked eagerly, even without the prospect of shiny new armor, he missed Jim alot. 

“We’re not really sure. The other trolls are itching to start building New Trollmarket but we still can’t find that heartstone Merlin heard about. Not to mention those portals Claire is experimenting with. Then there’s all this obviously.” He gestured to his newly trollish body. “It’s just...there’s too much going on to predict when it’ll be settled down. Hopefully soon. I really miss you guys. ” 

When Jim mentioned portals he was going to bring up Krel’s wormhole technology since that could serve the same function, but Jim kept talking and Eli managed not to interrupt someone for once in his life. As for the whole troll thing, Arcadia had gotten used to seeing Aaarrrgghh around town so he was sure Jim wouldn’t have any trouble settling back in.

Jim’s ears twitched as heavy footsteps marched down the sewer tunnels. The moon had fully risen and along with it, the troll pilgrimage. “I gotta go. Talk soon okay? Love you, bye!” It took him a few moments after hitting end call to realize what he’d said. “Wait a minute.”

_ Love you, bye! _

Eli was glad the call had ended because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle it if Jim saw how red he’d gotten. What was that?! Jim said ‘Love You’ to him, Elijah Pepperjack. Eli’d had a massive crush on Jim for at least two years but he’d never expected- no, he was definitely overthinking it. Friends say 'Love you’ to each other all the time! Well, not his friends, since Steve was too Steve for that, he and Toby weren’t that close, and Krel kind of hated everything. But still, he heard it was a thing that friends did and that’s probably how Jim meant it. Right? 

At least he’d have an interesting journal entry for today.


End file.
